-Caveat Lector- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/07/1038950236697.html
Print this article | Close this window Cherie Blair's accountant faces trial on fraud counts December 8 2002 An accountant recommended by an Australian fraudster to Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and used by her to buy flats, is to face trial on fraud charges. The revelation is a serious blow to Mr Blair's office after its humiliating about-face last week over a link between Mrs Blair and convicted Australian fraudster Peter Foster. After a spokesman for Mr Blair denied that the Prime Minister's wife was ever connected with Foster, she herself acknowledged on Thursday that he had played a part in helping her buy two apartments in the west of England. British Transport Police said Andrew Axelsen, the accountant who arranged the mortgage on the flats, had been charged following an investigation into the awarding of contracts for an extension to one of London's underground rail lines. Police were responding to a report in Friday's Daily Telegraph, which said Axelsen's co- defendant at the trial would be Martin Williams, a lawyer suggested by Foster to do the conveyancing on Mrs Blair's property deal. The Telegraph said Mrs Blair had opted for a different lawyer. "Andrew Axelsen and Martin Williams have been charged in connection with a fraud investigation. Both await trial, with others, at the Central Criminal Court," a British Transport Police spokesman said. Mr Blair's office refused to comment early today. Foster is understood to be preparing to flee London and move to Fiji. He has breached his visa conditions and has to leave Britain by Wednesday or face deportation. Should his last-ditch court action to stay fail, it is unlikely he will return to Australia - where the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is pursuing him in the Federal Court over a diet scam that fleeced investors of $3.75million. Instead it is understood 39-year-old Foster will return to Fiji, where he worked last year as a political adviser during the elections. He is believed to be building a house there. It emerged yesterday that the e-mails published in London, which conclusively proved Mrs Blair's involvement with Foster, were obtained in Australia. In them Mrs Blair tells Foster he is a "star" for saving her $194,000 in a deal on two flats in Bristol where her son Euan is attending university. Foster has denied selling the e-mails, which have caught out the Downing Street press office after its spin doctors had argued that Foster was not Mrs Blair's financial adviser. In a statement Foster said he had "always viewed them as a confidential matter and they remain confidential and I will never comment". His friends claim the published e-mails may have come from "business associates" in Australia and New Zealand to whom he had forwarded them to prove he was not fantasising about his links with theBlairs. But others claim he was paid as much as $250,000 by the Daily Mail for the correspondence. Yesterday there was no attempt by the Mail to deny that Foster secured a financial coup. Sources from the paper denied only that the sum was "large". Foster has also spoken to his Australian friend, Queensland photo-journalist Regina King, to tell her how Mrs Blair chose to trust him and take him on face value as the boyfriend of her lifestyle guru Carole Caplin. "Peter said they didn't want to dig up the past, that they were good Christian people and took him for what he was now," Ms King said. "Peter is a very good talker, very charming and very charismatic and she obviously knew him and trusted him." But Mrs Blair, a 48-year-old lawyer, has been forced to make two embarrassing backdowns and take full responsibility for the misinformation from Downing Street. A second statement issued through Downing Street, hot on the heels of a first botched one, said: "Having heard how some are reporting her statement, Mrs Blair wants to make it clear that she, and she alone, is responsible for any misunderstanding between the Number 10 press office and the media." However, some of Foster's claims, including one that he had been promised help with his deportation case and another that he was a guest at the Blairs' holiday home, have been dismissed asfantasy. Foster once dated topless model and singer Samantha Fox and embroiled her in a slimming-tea scam that helped stall her career. Now he has told Ms King that he is worried about the effect the latest publicity will have on his current former topless model girlfriend, Ms Caplin, who miscarried their baby last week. "He's desperately worried about the effect all this is having on Carole," she said. 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